Manoa Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes of May 14, 2007

In response to the question about the JABSOM dean selection, Ostrander said that there were four finalists, three external and one internal, and that no decision has been finalized because of the transition expected with a new chancellor coming in July.

In response to the question about reporting lines for the JABSOM dean, Ostrander said that currently that position reports to the chancellor, however conversations with the incoming chancellor indicate that she has been thinking of the incongruity of some deans reporting to a VC and others reporting to the chancellor. Ostrander said that his position as VCRGE has the responsibility of the medical research enterprise that involves Kakaako and Manoa researchers and the responsibility for telescopes on Mauna Kea, SOEST, etc. He thinks that it might be wise to divide his position into two, so that one could concentrate on supporting and growing the medical research and one could attend to the many other research areas. Ostrander said that he has agreed to take on ORS once he is no longer the interim dean of JABSOM.

In discussion about past ideas of having the Kakaako facility be a separate campus in the system, Ostrander asked if it makes sense to have students and faculty reporting to the president, that for now, it makes sense to have Kakaako in the Manoa campus. He believes that they've made progress with JABSOM, that commitments are being realigned, and that those commitments will be met eventually. Any of the candidates for dean coming in as dean will know what to expect and have indicated that they welcome the challenge to shape the school. There are currently 252 FTE faculty and more than a thousand affiliate faculty at Kakaako.

In the state budget, the proviso that was granted for the past two years is done ($3.6 million for the first year and $3.8 million for the second year) and was not funded in the biennium. However, JABSOM did receive a G fund increase so JABSOM did not lose ground and will close the books in the black. Ostrander discussed the tobacco money that could provide monies for JABSOM, if the bill is signed by the governor. The department of health may fight this bill.

Currently JABSOM is receiving all of the RTRF that their grants help generate instead of the 50% that other units receive. Ostrander said that an important reason that he took the VCRGE position at Manoa was because he was promised that he would control the RTRF. The agreement that the president made to allow all of the RTRF to go back to JABSOM ends this year and Ostrander does not intend to extend it.
A question was asked about how the faculty pay raises at JABSOM will be covered. Ostrander said that most of the funds will come from G funds. Most of the faculty at JABSOM pay their own salaries.

A question was asked about the long range lookout for Manoa because of the projected growth of the W. Oahu campus. Ostrander said that the opportunities and impact that this will have on Manoa hasn't been discussed formally in the chancellor's office. There will be many changes as it is expected that many faculty may retire in the next few years.

A discussion about the research infrastructure ensued. Ostrander said that the campus is doing more to be able to document the costs of research at Manoa, to raise the indirect cost rate.

A question was asked about the Library problems, in canceling electronic journals. Ostrander said that he did not know why it was playing out this way.

Regarding how research fared in the state budget, Ostrander said that it did okay but the funding for TA's failed and that was disappointing.

Overall the picture for RTRF is looking like there is a downturn happening. Research is down last month from last year.

UH Manoa is the number one fastest growing institution in research dollars gained and this is because we have RTRF to reinvest in the research.

Ostrander left at 2:55 pm

2) SEC Discussion

The SEC discussed the split appointment of the VPAPP so that 40% of her time would be given to Manoa as VCAA. The SEC members voiced concerns about the impacts this would have on students at Manoa and concerns about the WASC special visit. It was decided that David Chin, as incoming chair of the SEC would call President McClain and incoming Chancellor Hinshaw to voice these concerns. Chin will also testify at the Board of Regents meeting. The Senate has a special relationship with the BOR as its existence is mandated in the BOR policy.

Rutter will send Chin the links to the pertinent WASC documents.

Lampe reported on the May 3 CAB meeting. There are several ongoing issues for CAB, 1) exploring the establishment of a campus wide course review and 2) David Erickson, Robert Bley-Vroman, Barry Raleigh, and Meda Chesney-Lind have formed a subcommittee to look into the evaluation of the chancellor.

Lampe reported that Paula Mochida, interim University Librarian, met with CAB and that in her presentation said that she had to do damage control at the legislature because of way some faculty presented their concerns had offended legislators.

J. Tiles asked about the status of electing a graduate council. Lampe said that he was not sure where that stood. CAB supports that idea that reviews go back to the senate rather than only to Peter Garrod's office. CAB needs Garrod to specify the constituencies now and as they become absent the CFS can hold an election.

M.Tiles reported that UHPA is working with a consultant about online balloting and their findings may help the senate determine the tools it needs to roll out online voting. UHPA will decide by the end of the summer.

A brief discussion about the appointment of a GEC chair was held.

3) Minutes of May 7th were approved

4) OVCAA-Smatresk, Quigley, Aune

A brief meeting with the VC and Assistant VC's was held. The search for an enrollment manager failed and now UHM is looking at the feasibility of hiring a professional headhunter to identify candidates. Smatresk noted that enrollment managers are now highly paid and highly sought after. The incoming chancellor has been apprised of the situation and it is expected that she will address the problem of filling this position.

The enrollment statistics are not as low as had been anticipated. The Chancellors' scholarship has generated good PR but it is not known how many of these students will enroll at UHM.

There has been some streamlining in the distribution of waiver scholarships so that students know ahead of registration what they can expect. There has been some pushback from departments that want to hang on to their waivers for a longer time.

There is a beta test of department performance measures that combines HR, Banner, and fiscal data. The goal is to make this a part of COPRA, chair evaluations, budget allocations of funds. Some schools and colleges at Manoa are using other databases to track departmental performance. Smatresk would like to have a set of data that can be used to look over all departments based on the same data sources. Data such as publications is valuable for the department but will not be captured in the beta testing.

J. Tiles asked about using the CLA as an assessment tool that could be tested by faculty in the near future. CLA tests on analytical skills and writing. Aune noted that Manoa needs to develop and assessment that addresses GenEd. The set up to begin testing CLA would take six to eight months. J. Tiles encouraged Smatresk to help faculty who wanted to try testing the CLA as one means of learning outcomes assessment.

5) Kathy Cutshaw VCAFO

Cutshaw distributed spreadsheets of how the biennium budget requests fared from the BOR through the senate deliberations. Both operational and CIP budgets were distributed. Cutshaw said that Manoa had received approximately 80% of the request, which was better than in the past. The supplemental budget is being developed now. President McClain has asked for requests that support health and safety, everything that was not funded by this last session of the legislature, anything that has to do with classroom support and then a wish list. The list is due the 1st of June to the President's office. A discussion about faculty involvement in the budget, as in the past with MBAG ensued. Cutshaw made note of the SEC's suggestions about where in the cycle MBAG might provide advice, perhaps when the VC's gather to prioritize after their individual meetings with the deans and directors. MBAG would need a charge and guidelines as to the composition of the committee.

In a discussion about the upcoming faculty salary increases, Cutshaw said that the funds will come from the state and part from tuition funds. The state is committed to a certain amount to cover the raises based on the salary load at the time the UHPA contract was signed so there will be a gap in that coverage because salaries of incoming faculty are a bit higher. Cutshaw was not certain at this time what the departments would be asked to fund to cover that gap.

A brief discussion about facilities maintenance was held.

Cutshaw said that she would like to meet with the SEC over the summer to talk about

1) campus security models that are being developed (campus police, sheriff station, etc.)--she is ready to talk about this now and,
2) long range development in campus planning (footprints), later in June.

6) Ron Cambra with Enrollment figures

Cambra said that as of one week ago (deadline for enrollment May 1) we are trailing fall enrollments by 1.08% for undergraduates and trailing 3.6% for graduate enrollments. Graduate students tend to commit later in the year so Cambra said that those statistics are not of great concern. He is projecting a much smaller loss in enrollment than that which occurred when tuition was last raised. They are seeing more transfer students than incoming freshmen and more transfers from non-system campuses. These are students who are returning home from mainland schools. Last year Manoa was 70% resident and 30% non-resident, which is the BOR mandated ratio. Students will continue to enroll through July.

The situation with the enrollment manager is difficult as the money requested to support that position did not make it through the legislature.

The Chancellors' Scholarship was offered to 1126 students and 406 have been accepted, 229 declined. Cambra said that so far that is a 36% acceptance and given that the scholarship was rolled out late so that high school counselors may not have been aware of it, this is a good rate. The scholarship offers $1000 or $2000 to residents, $3000 or $6000 to non-residents, and is renewable for eight semesters in four years. This is a waiver so there are no out-of-pocket expenses for the campus. The UH foundation scholarships has set up a Giving Tree website that lists all of the scholarships that are available with application information and a way to monitor whether the scholarships are used. The website was set up to address the problem that last year more than $2 million was not given out, perhaps because students did not know that the money was available.